Decadal Ocean Heat Content Westward Shift in the Indian Ocean during the Global Surface Warming and Hiatus

Abstract:

Understanding the ocean’s role in Earth's energy budget is fundamental to evaluate climate variability and change, including the rate of global warming and the recent 18-years’ so-called Global Surface Warming Hiatus (GSWH). Previous studies have shown that basin-wide warming in the Atlantic Ocean triggers the intensification of trade wind and wind-driven circulation since late 1990s, resulting in Global Surface Warming Hiatus (GSWH). A recent work revealed that missing heat in the Pacific during the GSWH was transported to the Indian Ocean by the Indonesia throughflow. It brings the Indian Ocean to the platform of the GSWH study and suggests that the global ocean is at play in the GSWH and in the ocean heat content (OHC) westwards shifting. The westwards shifting of the OHC was detected from in-situ data and model/in-situ reanalysis data. The shifting has a period of about 30 years, and takes about 60 years to travel from the eastern Pacific to the western Atlantic. Heat was distributed to deeper layers after the warm OHC passed the southern tip of the Africa continent. This may shed light on the understanding of the physical mechanisms for the multi-decadal climate variability.